Anne McCaffrey Quotations

I wouldn't encourage new writers to start off publishing through electronic media... it still isn't wide enough for the readership they would need to get a good start

Make no judgements where you have no compassion.

I have my good days and my bad days, but I don't have as much energy as I used to back when I was young and foolish and didn't count the cost - and it takes a lot - to write

That's what writing is all about, after all, making others see what you have put down on the page and believing that it does, or could, exist and you want to go there.

A good story is a good story no matter who wrote it.

Because we build the worlds we wouldn't mind living in. They contain scary things, problems, but also a sense of rightness that makes them alive and makes us want to live there.

I have a shelf of comfort books, which I read when the world closes in on me or something untoward happens

Mostly I'm telling people that they don't have to be victims

What I used to do between writing fits was feed my kids, ride my horse and go shopping for cat and dog food.

I did not have a chance to write novels until my youngest child started school fulltime

I don't often reread my own books, unless I am going into another in the series and need to refresh my mood when originating the concept

I would recommend the short story form, which is a lot harder to write since you have to be so careful with words, until there is plenty of time to doodle through a novel

I think writers need windows on a view to remind them that a whole world is out there, not the minutiae with which they might be dealing on a close scale

The thing is, emotion - if it's visibly felt by the writer - will go through all the processes it takes to publish a story and still hit the reader right in the gut. But you have to really mean it.

But Ship Who Sang remains my favorite story. I really rocked folks with that and still cannot read it aloud myself without weeping at the end

I have written my own screen version of Pern, but had no buyers yet.

I didn't raise Todd to be a writer, but he happened to be one anyway

People have freaked out when I tell them that my dragons are scientifically based... what else can you call a genetically engineered life form?

I think the Internet, particularly the availability of information, is great. I do a lot of correspondence on-line and have a chat line to talk to my fans as well

I'm very fond of the Talent series, and also the Crystal Singer trio.

But I will say that living in Ireland has changed the cadence and fullness of speech, since the Irish love words and use as many of them in a sentence as possible

At age 77, I need the help of someone with more energy than I can now summon to finish a book

I do outlines when I'm writing with someone, but they also need to have a certain amount of freedom

I have always used emotion as a writing tool. That goes back to me being on the stage

That's such a thrill - a story I wrote at the beginning of my career, and it's still packin' the house.

I'm 78, I'm on my pension in Ireland, and all that good stuff

Writing has been so much a part of my life that I'm really quite annoyed that I can't do as much as I used to.

I also don't have organized religion on Pern. I figured - since there were four holy wars going on at the time of writing - that religion was one problem Pern didn't need.

Living is struggling to do something impossible; To succeed or die, knowing that you had tried.

Who wills, Can. Who tries, Does. Who loves, Lives.

Drummer, beat, and piper, blowHarper, strike, and soldier, goFree the flame and sear the grassesTil the dawning Red Star passes

Above us, outlined against the brilliant sky, dragons crowded every available perching space on the Rim. And the sun made a gold of every one of them.

The horse, the noblest, bravest, proudest, most courageous and certainly the most perverse and infuriating animal that humans ever domesticated

How could she have believed such an artificial life as the theatre was suitable?

My eyes are green, my hair is silver and I freckly; the rest is subject to change without notice.

Fight only in direst need Not for lust or petty greed Honor those that do give birth Respect them well for their full worth

A real scientist solves problems, not wails that they are unsolvable.

To cry was to release all sorts of ugly little pressures and tensions. Like waking out of a long, dark dream to a sun-filled day.

Your music can be played easily and well by any half-stringed harper or fumble-fingered idiot. Not that I'm maligning your songs. It's just that they're an entirely different kettle of fish-to use a seamanly metaphor-to Domick's. Don't you judge your songs against his standard! More people have already listened to your melodies and liked them than will ever hear Domick's, much less like them.

James Blish told me I had the worst case of "said bookism" (that is, using every word except said to indicate dialogue). He told me to limit the verbs to said, replied, asked, and answered and only when absolutely necessary.

Of course, an exhausting day at sail lines and nets left little energy to expend on running or laughing. Perhaps that was why her parents couldn't appreciate her music-it wouldn't appear to be hard work to them. Menolly shook her hands, letting them flap from her wrists. They ached and trembled from the constricted movements and tension of an hour of intensive playing. No, her parents would never understand that playing musical instruments could be as hard work as sailing or fishing.

Fear has its uses but cowardice has none.

Step by step Moment by moment We live through Another day

I didn't mean to stay up all night to finish Windhaven, but I had to!

Tell a story! Don't try to impress your reader with style or vocabulary or neatly turned phrases. Tell the story first!

Tell the readers a story! Because without a story, you are merely using words to prove you can string them together in logical sentences.

The blackest night must end in dawn, the light dispel the dreamer's fear.

How much can a dragon carry? As much as it thinks it can

Make no judgments where you have no compassion.

Who tries, does. Who wills, can. Who loves, lives.

Grady could write a football story in 15 minutes, and it would be a good one,